Cons
Very difficult to see type on screen. Some design elements intentionally locked/fixed in place.

Bottom Line

Hallmark, the first name in greeting cards, has an online site with a service that lets you design and mail cards for all kinds of occasions. A wealth of styles and mailing options make it an excellent service, but better deals abound.

It's never been easier or more convenient to create greeting cards from home. Even if you couldn't photo-edit your way out of a paper bag, online services such as Hallmark.com, simplify the process by taking the pressure off you as the designer. Hallmark's online site, which is free to use, lets you choose or create and personalize holiday cards, birthday cards, invitations, and a wide variety of other kinds of cards. Prices vary and typically run a little higher than other sites that offer similar services, such as Snapfish and Zazzle, but Hallmark has the best options for shipping. The quality of the finished product is high, which is what you should expect for the slightly higher price, and while the site does restrict you with some design limitations, it's often for the best, reigning you in toward a look that's elegant and impressive for a customized card.

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Features Hallmark.com is free to use, but it does require creating an account. Having an account works to your benefit if, like me, you tend to get caught up in one card-making project that derails you from completing the much longer list of cards that you originally set out to do. All your work will be saved in the Hallmark account, where you can restart it any time.

Hallmark.com offers a wide variety of cards in different sizes and paperstock, folded or flat, postcard or greeting, and on and on. You can make baby announcements, customized with a photo of your newborn (say it with me: "Aww!"), a year's end family photo card, and even specialty paper plates for theme parties.

To make a card, Hallmark has you start with a template, rather than a blank slate, to steer you toward a professional looking design. Templates are grouped by occasion for cards (thank you, get well, etc.) and type of product for other goods, including keepsake ornaments, story books, and the aforementioned party plates.

LimitationsIn most cases, you can't customize every inch of the template. You can always customize the inside message, but depending on the design, some other elements, like color or font, will be fixed. It varies by template, which can be frustrating if you've found a design you mostly like and want to change something about it that's set in stone. For example, I made a birthday card that have a chic green flower print on the cover; I wanted a contrasting color for the text, but Hallmark locked me in to using the same green as the design. For many people, these limitations will probably result in a net positive gain—or to put in more bluntly, it will stop you from designing anything too ugly. But if you want to tweak, you may be frustrated.

The online tools for customizing the cards work well enough, but aren't perfect. The photo uploading instructions walk you through the process of grabbing photos from your computer or importing them from Facebook, Photobucket, Picknik, but not Flickr, one of the most popular photo-hosting sites, or Picasa.

When customizing text, I had a hard time seeing the final type in Hallmark's online system, though it's worth noting that it was just as bad with most of the competing tools. The only service that zooms in on text well enough to help you actually read what you are writing is Snapfish. The iPhone app Cards does a decent job of zooming, although on the iPhone's tiny screen, you can barely see more than a few letters at a time.

One thing you can always customize in Hallmark is the address on the envelope, but that doesn't mean you have to ship the card directly to the recipient. Hallmark's shipping options can't be beat. If you want to mail the card directly to the recipient, you can, but you can also opt to have it mailed to you. You can then hand-address the envelope if you prefer, or use the printed one, as two envelopes are included. Optionally, you can have the envelope pre-stamped, too. Another shipping option is to have your cards delivered to a Hallmark store where you can pick them up.

Jill Duffy is a contributing editor, based in Washington, D.C., specializing in productivity apps and software, as well as apps and gadgets for health and fitness. She writes the weekly Get Organized column, with tips...

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